


Comfort

by helsinkibaby



Category: Fame (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Past Character Death, Post canon, Pre Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-27 02:52:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13871538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Leroy comforts his room-mate after a nightmare.





	Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> For the one million words weekend challenge - AU  
> 284.‘roommate has a nightmare and doesn’t want to sit alone at night’ au
> 
> I really hated killing off the character I killed off but it was only way to keep Nicole alive!

Leroy wasn't sure what woke him at first and when he blinked sleepily at the glowing red numbers on his bedside clock, saw it was barely three in the morning, his first impulse was to roll over and go back to sleep. It was Sunday night after all and since Broadway was dark on Mondays, it was the one day of the week when he didn't have to get up early and after doing eight shows a week for most of the last year, he'd learned to guard his sleep jealously. 

Then he heard a noise coming from the living room. 

Which shouldn't have alarmed him. After all, they weren't living in a particularly bad area of New York - put it this way, he'd definitely lived in worse - and they were on the fifth floor so it wasn't as if someone could just climb in the living room window. Besides, the lock on the fire escape was secure and he checked it every night before bed, just in case. 

But Leroy had lived in worse places than this and old habits died hard. 

Carefully, he got up out of bed, moved towards the door and quietly turned the handle. Both bedrooms opened onto the living room so he eased the door open quietly, only relaxing when he saw his room-mate sitting on the couch. Her back was to him, so he couldn't see her face but it looked like her knees were drawn up to her chin, her arms wrapped around her legs and it only took him a second to register the tension in her shoulders. 

"Nicole? What are you doing?" 

He didn't know why he kept his voice quiet, maybe not to scare her. She didn't jump though and he wondered if she'd heard his handle turning. Then, when she didn't react after s couple of seconds, he wondered if she'd even heard him at all. 

"Nicole?" 

He came around to stand in front of her then, his heart dropping straight towards the floor when he saw her head twist away from him, like she didn't want him to see the tears in her eyes, or the ones rolling down her cheeks. Something twisted painfully in his gut because he never could stand to see a pretty girl cry and he knew, even if he'd never admitted it to anyone, seeing Nicole cry hit him harder than any other. It wasn't his place to think like that - first she’d been his friend, then his friend's girlfriend, and when she wasn't that, he'd been her teacher and then...

Another memory made his stomach twist and he remembered what date it was and he knew. 

Sighing, he sat down beside her, let his hand fall on her knees. He could feel her trembling and he swept his thumb up and down her skin, offering what silent comfort he could. 

He didn't know how long they'd been sitting there when she spoke. "I'm sorry I woke you." Her voice was thick with tears, a certain note of what sounded almost like embarrassment ringing through it. 

"You don't have to be sorry, baby." The endearment slipped, unbidden, from his throat as it so often did around her and she ignored it as she always did. Their cast-mates, on the other hand, still gave them second and third looks every time they heard it. Especially when it came on the heels of another "We went to high school together, now we work together, we’re platonic roommates, we're not involved." He squeezed her knee to push the point home. "You could have come in to me." He was really glad their cast-mates weren't there to hear that.

Nicole lifted her head and it was an effort to keep his face neutral when he saw her puffy eyes, her blotchy cheeks. She'd been out here for a while then. "Not on a Sunday night," she chided, her lips curled in a teasing smile and Leroy tilted his head, conceding the point. 

"You know I'd give up my sleep for you." 

It happened to be true and maybe Nicole knew it because her hand covered his, squeezed gently. "I didn't want to disturb you," she told him and he knew she wasn't just talking about his sleep. 

"You had a dream." He wasn't asking a question. Her eyes filled with fresh tears and he took that as confirmation that he was right. "About the accident." When Nicole looked up, her lips were pressed into a thin line, as if the pressure would keep back the words, or a fresh round of sobs. "Nicole, you know you can talk to me about this." 

She shook her head from side to side violently, pressed her fist to her lips, even as her other hand stayed gripping his. He turned his over, lacing their fingers together, just waiting. "I was back there," she finally whispered. "We were getting into the car... I was fine sitting in the middle but Danny, he insisted... he insisted I have the window. I think he wanted to make sure I wasn't sitting beside Mickey..." 

Leroy remembered, with great clarity, a few conversations he'd overheard between Danny Amatullo and a very pissed off and jealous Jesse Velasquez and he didn't doubt that that had been exactly what had been on Danny's mind that night. Jesse had always carried a torch for Nicole after she'd broken it off and Danny - and most of their friends, to be honest - had always thought they'd get back together some day. Mickey, new to the school, didn't know their history and, like most of the men in the place, had fallen for Nicole like the proverbial tonne of bricks. He'd offered to drive Nicole home from the party, Danny had decided he was ready to go to and the rest was history that made Leroy want to shudder. 

"If he hadn't done that..." Nicole's voice was quiet and a new, deeper, horror dawned on him. 

"You can't think like that." He looked at her sharply, spoke to her the same way. "You think Amatullo would want to hear you saying that?" 

Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. "I'm here and he's not," she told him. "And I live with that, every single day. And some nights. They told me it would get easier, Leroy, they told me it would get better. When? When?" She broke down then, sobs wracking her body and Leroy did the only thing he could do. Scooting closer to her, he broke their hand hold, got one arm around her shoulders, the other under her knees and scooped her up into his arms. Once she was sitting on his lap, her head on his shoulder as she continued to sob, he took one of her hands in his again, let the other one move gently across her hair. He held her like that until she cried herself out and he almost thought she'd cried herself to sleep until he heard her quiet voice. 

"I miss him." 

"I know, baby." This time, he accompanied the name with a kiss to the top of her head. "I miss him too." 

"I was going to go see his mom tomorrow..."

He heard the question she wasn't asking. "You want some company?" 

He felt, rather than saw, her smile. "What would I do without you?" She shifted slightly on his knee, bringing her body into closer contact with his. Leory's traitorous body of course decided that was the exact right time to react to having a beautiful female pressed up against him and Nicole's breath caught audibly in her throat. 

Closing his eyes, Leroy counted slowly to twenty. When he opened them again, she hadn't moved, was staring at him, her eyes wide and dark and Leroy felt his own breath catch at what he saw there. 

His eyes dropped down to her lips and the urge to lean in and kiss her was overpowering. 

But no. 

With the greatest of willpower, he stopped himself. 

Not tonight. 

Not like this. 

"I should go back to bed," he heard her whisper and he nodded. She closed her eyes, took another deep breath. "Except..." 

The word hung between them. 

"I'm probably not going to sleep for awhile," she said. "I might just stay here... watch some tv. If you don't mind?" 

Leroy smiled, already reaching back for the blanket they kept over the back of the couch. Ostensibly to cover up a few raggedy patches, it also served a different purpose. "Would you like some company?" He was already draping it over them, a difficult feat with his arms full of Nicole, but he managed it with a little help from her. 

"What would I do without you?" she murmured again. 

He smile as he kissed her forehead. "Baby, you'll never have to find out," he promised, and he meant every word.


End file.
